Author Archives ptd

On September 10th, 1944, the first Americans cross the Luxembourgish border. The long-awaited liberators are here! Their pockets filled with chocolate, chewing gum and cigarettes, their hearts filled with weariness and apprehension, they soon find themselves overwhelmed by the gratitude of the Luxembourgish people. Friendships are born, affairs, even lasting relationships. The number of little white and black babies of unknown fathers that are born in the next few months in Luxembourg, remains unknown. Likewise, the hundreds of women who follow the GIs across the pond have never been properly registered. For more than a year Andy Bausch researches and works on the documentary Chocolate, Chewing Gum & Brown Babies, interviewing Luxembourgers and American veterans, some of whom have come to visit, others who never left Luxembourg after landing here. In New York, Bausch interviews 84- year young Tony Vaccaro, the legendary photographer who shot the famous pictures that will always keep that winter of ’44 alive in our minds. But also the children of the GIs speak out, as well as the women who wanted to, and who agreed to tell all in front of the camera. It won’t be long, however, before the regular commemorations, the festivities and the visits of the American veterans will cease. The veterans are either too old to travel, or they are no longer with us. And thus a part of our past disappears. Chocolate, Chewing Gum & Brown Babies tells the stories of the liberation, of Hemingway, Marlene Dietrich and Eisenhower, of Saint Nick, of broken hearts, pregnant bellies, inflatable tanks and nicotine poisoning.